"Treasury Drops Short Sale Requirements"(CNBC) CNBC's Diana Olick on changes to the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative program: "As more and more homeowners dipped underwater on their mortgages last year and didn't qualify for loan modifications, the Obama Administration launched a program to help them out."

Goldman's Facebook Deal: Open Questions (Reuters) "Goldman Sachs’ old-school Facebook deal brings a new set of challenges. The bank is raising up to $1.5 billion from clients to invest in the social network while putting in $450 million itself. Like Morgan Stanley’s reported deal with online coupon service Groupon, it looks like classic merchant banking. With hot firms in the driver’s seat, however, the banks could find themselves in for a wild ride."

Will Facebook Be Forced to go Public? (Business Insider) "Goldman Sachs is busy asking its wealthiest clients if they would like to invest $1.5 billion in Facebook stock. We think this offering will inevitably result in the SEC forcing Facebook to register as a public company and disclose its financials as soon as it crosses the 500 shareholder mark. The next question is…Why does the SEC care if Facebook has 500 shareholders or not? The short answer is to protect shareholders who are either too poor, dumb, or inexperienced to own Facebook stock."

Equity Indices up on Positive Job Growth (Reuters) "The creation of three times as many private-sector jobs as expected turned Wall Street's early losses into gains on Wednesday, extending a rally investors worried had come too far too fast."